Discrimination Analysis in Flowers For Algernon Essay Sample

In the short story Flowers For Algernon, a mentally handicapped man, named Charlie Gordon, goes through with a surgery to become more intelligent so that he can fit in with society more. Throughout the story, Charlie chronicles his story and the unfortunate circumstances and events which occurred to him, noting the pros and cons of his gained intelligence. Through all of this, Keyes shows that, in society as a whole, although most people are normal and accepted, some individuals are different and are discriminated against. Furthermore, these individuals can never fit in, no matter how hard they try, as shown with Charlie. This encourages the reader to consider how society can be cruel, unfair, and discriminatory against others. 

Starting off, the short story is structured in short, daily logs, which are written first-hand by Charlie. In the beginning of the story, when Charlie is less intelligent, the logs have broken and incorrect English, and Charlie is far more happy, having a positive outlook on almost everything that happened around him. He knows, however, that he is different from other people, because of his lower intelligence, saying “1m not so fast somtimes. 1m a slow reeder too in Miss Kinnians class for slow adults but I'm trying very hard”(Keyes 1958, p.1). In this, Keyes, along with showing that Charlie is aware of his unintelligence, showed that Charlie was doing everything he could to change his intelligence, so that he could fit in with other people. Despite this, Charlie was being outcasted and bullied by his peers, and he was “at odds with his society”(Cox). In particular, Joe Carp, one of his co-workers, said “hey look... what did they do Charlie put some brains in” (Keyes, 1958, p.5). This shows the cruelty and unfairness of society towards certain individuals, and Charlie was so clueless that he said “Their really my friends and they like me” (Keyes, 1958, p.5). Here, Keyes demonstrated how deeply Charlie wanted to fit in and be liked, even though he couldn’t, showing society’s cruelty. More upsettingly, Charlie actually thinks here that he has some sort of bond or connection to society, when, in reality, he is just clueless. Charlie’s feelings here connect the reader to his struggles, and invoke pity.

As the story progresses, Charlie becomes “intelligent”, and he realizes that he was being discriminated against. Despite this, he uses his intelligence to help others, even saving his factory lots of money, demonstrating how those discriminated against and “othered” in society don’t necessarily have to be mean or aggressive. Though he is not discriminated against for being dumb anymore, he is instead discriminated for being too smart. In fact, his co-workers all signed a petition to fire him. Here, Charlie has a revelation, and he realizes that no-matter how hard he tries, he will never be able to fit in, and people will always discriminate against him, saying “Before, they laughed at me and despised me for my ignorance and dullness; now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding. What in God's name do they want of me?”(Keyes 1958, P.13). Keyes used this revelation of Charlie to show the reader more bluntly how unfair society can be, and how utterly hopeless some of those affected by outcasting and discrimination can feel, because no matter what they do, they can’t ever seem to fit in with others. Also, it is at this quote that Keyes most intentionally tries to get us all to consider the feelings about those who are discriminated against, and how they may be hurting inside, torn because of society’s unfair ways. Charlie then realizes the untruthfulness of the statement “that with increased intelligence ‘you can have lots of friends to talk to and you never get lonely’”(Cox), knowing that increased intelligence won’t do anything, particularly in the department of fitting in with others.

To conclude this argument, Keyes showed us the story of Charlie, and his rise to intelligence, along with the discrimination and bullying which he faced, to show us all how cruel society can be in discriminating against certain individuals, and how they can never fit in, no matter how desperately they want or try to. This, as a whole, gets the reader to consider how deep the roots of discrimination run in our society.